View allAll Photos Tagged reflectionnebula
This is a reflection nebula in Orion in a dark corner of the constellation. I didn't process this data at the time as I didn't think they were usable. Since then I've had a rethink and this is the result.
T: RC10 plus x0.7 reducer
C: ASI 071 MC Pro
M: EQ8
35 x 120s RGB
A wonderful patch of reflection nebula that looks very much like the head of a witch when oriented appropriately as done here.
Also designated Caldwell 4. The Iris Nebula is illuminated from the inside by a 7th magnitude star. This image was produced with 5 hours worth of exposure but with such a bright sky (downtown light pollution) I could only pull out hints of the outer nebulosity. Still a fascinating target thought!
Definitely click on this one to view large. Looks MUCH better on a dark background.
Technical info about the image:
Object: NGC 7023, Caldwell 4, The Iris Nebula
Mount: CGEM
Imaging scope: C9.25 at f/6.3
Imaging FL: 1480mm
Imaging camera: unmodified Nikon D700
Lights: 100x180s (5h) at ISO 400
Calibration: 12 sky flats, no darks
Guide scope: Orion 9x50 finder scope!
Guide camera: Philips SPC900NC (LX modified, 2s intervals)
Other details: Images acquired with ImagesPlus Camera Control, guided with PHD (using GPUSB), calibrated and stacked using Deep Sky Stacker, post-processed in Photoshop CS5.
Here's a beautiful shot of the central region on APOD.
-----------------------------------------------
For all the iPhone-carrying astro-geeks, head over to my profile for a link to a project that you might be interested in...
In the constellation of Taurus the Bull resides The Seven Sisters. Or, the Pleiades star cluster. Also known as M45 in the Messier Catalog. The Japanese call it Subaru. The eponymous car company's logo is a stylized Seven Sisters.
This is a stack of eight 2-minute exposures. I bought Noel Carboni's Astronomy Actions pack tonight. This is the first image I tried it with. The bluish glow around the bigger stars is what is known as a reflection nebula. Or, more likely it is overflow of the photo sites on the camera sensor caused by the brightness of the larger stars. If it is to be interpreted as the reflection nebulae, then only the brighter portions of the nebulae can be seen through the light pollution from my backyard. There was also a thin layer of clouds so it was not completely transparent seeing.
The area around the head of Scorpius, including the bright star Antares at lower left of centre and the dark lanes leading to the star Rho Ophiuchi. The area is filled with colourful nebulosity, including yellow and blue reflection nebulas and magenta emission nebulas. To the right of Antares is the globular cluster Messier 4. The field is similar to what binoculars would take in.
I shot this the morning of May 4, 2014, from the Four Bar Cottages near the Arizona Sky Village, near Portal Arizona. This is a stack of 10 x 4 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 135mm lens and Canon 5D Mark II (filter modified) at ISO 1600. This overexposed the frames but gave enough signal to bring out the faint dark nebulas without introducing a lot of noise. Even so, I forgot to turn on Long Exposure Noise Reduction so no dark frames were applied to these images. The camera was tracking, but not guiding, on the iOptron SkyTracker. Stacked with Median combine to eliminate satellite trails.
Everyone’s favorite Cluster!!!
M45 The Pleiades aka "The Seven Sisters" Open Star Cluster in Taurus. Easily visible to the unaided Eye, even from the city, this bright cluster is an amazing view in Binoculars or a small wide angle telescope. M45 is one of the nearest Galactic Open Clusters, sitting about 444 light years away, and shining at Magnitude 1.6.
I did also pick up a faint background Edge on spiral galaxy, look to the upper left of Electra to spot it!
M45 is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The celestial entity has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.
Dust that forms a faint blue reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.
New Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades was probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula.
Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
Greek Mythology states that Mighty Atlas (son of a Titan) and his wife Pleione had 7 Incredibly beautiful Daughters, Atlas place his Seven daughters in the heavens to protect them from Mortal men! And to this day Orion the hunter who is in love with several of the Sisters follows them around the sky.
Modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR & 5.5 inch Diameter Vixen Newtonian Reflector scope, ISO 1600, for a 76 minute exposure at my Observatories in JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae in Orion are a part of the vast Orion nebular complex. The Flame's source of energy is the brightest star in the frame, Alnitak. The reflection nebula to the lower right is NGC2023, a 4 light year wide molecular hydrogen cloud.
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 106mm TripletImaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheelGuide scope: Astro-Tech 65 QuadrupletGuide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)Mount: Atlas EQ-GCalibration and processing in PixInsight.
Synthetic luminance from all frames
L(HaR)GB:
Ha: 3x6min (2x2), 11x5min (1x1)
R: 1x3min, 7x5min (2x2)
G: 1x3min, 5x5min (2x2)
B: 3x3min, 5x5min (2x2)
HQ version here
Everyone’s favorite Cluster!!!
M45 The Pleiades aka "The Seven Sisters" Open Star Cluster in Taurus. Easily visible to the unaided Eye, even from the city, this bright cluster is an amazing view in Binoculars or a small wide angle telescope. M45 is one of the nearest Galactic Open Clusters, sitting about 444 light years away, and shining at Magnitude 1.6.
I did also pick up a faint background Edge on spiral galaxy, look to the upper left of Electra to spot it!
M45 is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The celestial entity has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.
Dust that forms a faint blue reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.
New Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades was probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula.
Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
Greek Mythology states that Mighty Atlas (son of a Titan) and his wife Pleione had 7 Incredibly beautiful Daughters, Atlas place his Seven daughters in the heavens to protect them from Mortal men! And to this day Orion the hunter who is in love with several of the Sisters follows them around the sky.
Modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR & 5.5 inch Diameter Vixen Newtonian Reflector scope, ISO 1600, for a 76 minute exposure at my Observatories in JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
A unique peanut-shaped cocoon of dust, called a reflection nebula, surrounds a cluster of young, hot stars in this view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The "double bubble," called N30B, is inside a larger nebula. The larger nebula, called DEM L 106, is embedded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way lying 160,000 light-years away. The wispy filaments of DEM L 106 fill much of the image. Hubble captures the glow of fluorescing hydrogen and sulfur, as well as the brilliant blue-white colors of the hot stars.
The very bright star at the top of the picture, called Henize S22, illuminates the dusty cocoon like a flashlight shining on smoke particles. This searing supergiant star is only 25 light-years from the N30B nebula. Viewed from N30B, the brilliant star would appear 250 times as bright as the planet Venus does in Earth's sky.
Astronomers have made a clever use of the reflection nebula around N30B. By obtaining spectroscopic observations at various points across the nebula, they can study the spectrum of S22 from different angles. Remarkably, they have found that the star's spectrum changes with the viewing angle, suggesting that the star is surrounded by a flattened disk of gas expelled from its equator.
Astronomers R. Davies, K. Elliot, and J. Meaburn, who created the "DEM" catalogs of both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, originally cataloged DEM L 106 in the 1970s. N30B was discovered in the 1950s by astronomer K. Henize, who later became a NASA astronaut.
DEM L 106 was imaged with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Hubble data taken in 1998 were combined with data taken by the Hubble Heritage Team in late 2001.
For more information please visit: hubblesite.org/image/1272/news_release/2002-29
Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: M.S. Oey (Lowell Observatory) and Y.-H. Chu (Univ. of Illinois)
A wide view of Sagittarian trio of nebula.
Though really much more than a trio when viewed up close, the two most recognisable of the bunch are the Lagoon nebula at bottom and the Trifid Nebula at the top.
In Sagittarius the pink emission nebula IC1283-4 are near center with two small blue reflection nebulae NGC6589 and NGC6590. Bordered by the dark nebula vdB118 & 119.
I am finally done my "winter project" of M78 in the constellation Orion. The winter weather in the Niagara Region doesn't bode to well for astrophotographers as the clear nights are slim to none. Last night, however, I was able to squeeze in another 1.5 hours of shooting on this beautiful subject. I am satisfied with my results, and look forward to moving on to my next project, The Orion Nebula:) Thanks for looking!
72 frames
4 and 4.5 minute exposures
5 hours 30 minutes total exposure
Stacked with darks
ES ED80 Triplet Apo
ASCG-5 GT
Orion Mini Guidescope
Meade DSI II
Canon 450d unmodded
Stacked in DSS
Processed in PS CS5
The Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42) poses with it's companions the Messier 43 and the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977) in this LRGB HDR mosaic with 30s, 5min and 10min exposures as 2 panels.
It's still not perfect, but this will have to do for the foreseeable future for this object. The actual mosaic is 6300x8200, so it might make a nice print at some point.
Shot over multiple winter nights in 2012-2013. Photographed with WO FLT-110, WO 0.8x mk4 reducer, Baader LRGB filters in Atik EFW2 wheel, StarlightXpress SXVR-H18 CCD-camera on Synta EQ6 using MaxImDL and AstroTortilla. Processed in PixInsight.
🌌 IC 4604 – The Blue Nebula of Rho Ophiuchi 🔥✨
follow - share - credit
www.instagram.com/ale_motta_astrofotografia
Here is IC 4604, one of the most stunning reflection nebulae in the sky, located at the heart of the Rho Ophiuchi region, about 460 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its intense blue color is caused by nearby hot stars, whose light is scattered by fine interstellar dust.
📍 Constellation: Ophiuchus ♒
🌍 Distance: ~460 light-years
💫 Type: Reflection Nebula
🔭 Apparent Magnitude: ~4.6
📏 Apparent Size: ~3° × 2°
️ Coordinates (J2000): RA 16h 25m 35s | Dec -23° 26′ 49″
✨ Fun Facts:
The Rho Ophiuchi region is a massive stellar nursery, full of young stars in formation. 🌟🌀
The intense blue color is due to Rayleigh scattering, the same phenomenon that makes our daytime sky blue! 🌍💙
This nebula is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth, making it a natural laboratory for studying young stars. 🔬💫
A breathtaking corner of the cosmos, where dust and gas mix to create wonders. Who else loves reflection nebulae? ✨💙
Lights: 131x300" (LRGB)
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED
Camera: QHY 600M
Filters: LRGB Astrodon
Processed: Pixinsight
Date: 11/07/2023
This is what the infrared Pleiades look like with a normal wavelength arrangement. Wasn't going to post it, but after asking around I found out that it's split maybe 50/50 on preference. Enjoy! More info at: WISE Pleiades
Red: W4 (22 μm)
Yellow-Green: W3 (12 μm)
Cyan: W2 (4.6 μm)
Blue: W1 (3.4 μm)
North is up.
The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023). This has proved to be a tricky target to get right in the past and this attempt was no exception, but it's the first time we’ve imaged NGC 7023 with this camera and a good polar alignment so the image is an improvement on previous attempts. The problems were due to having only one set of flat files when ideally we should have shot another set for after the meridian flip. This meant gradients and dust devils appeared in the processing as well as a mysterious cross-hatch noise pattern. After trying various processes to tame the background I cropped the image to lose the noisier parts and that made it look better but it meant sacrificing some of the fainter gas and dust clouds surrounding the nebula.
From Wkipedia [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Nebula]:
The Iris Nebula, also known as NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4, is a bright reflection nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cepheus. NGC 7023 is actually the cluster within the nebula, LBN 487, and the nebula is lit by a magnitude +7 star, SAO 19158. It shines at magnitude +6.8. It is located near the Mira-type variable star T Cephei, and near the bright magnitude +3.23 variable star Beta Cephei (Alphirk). It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across.
037 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frames)
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 3 hours and 5 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity, Lightroom and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
This area is a complex of dust near the bright star Navi in Cassiopeia. The nebula glows with a combination of emission and reflection, giving a reddish and blueish white color. The whole complex of IC 59 and IC 63 also are in the Sharpless Catalog as Sh2-185.
Taken over two days while at Calstar 2013 in October. Most data was collected on the first night after I'd done polar alignment and while I was struggling with polar alignment and guiding of the GM8 for film work. The rest of the data was gathered piece-meal as I had shut down the GM8 and went piggyback for the film camera.
Standard setup for my digital work:
Stellarvue SV4 telescope using SSF6 flattener
Modified and Cooled Pentax K10D camera
No light pollution filter, just used the B+W 486 UV/IR filter. For a time I was using this filter to control NIR and UV on the full spectrum camera to control what I thought was out of focus light causing problems.
10 subexposures at 1200 seconds each giving 3 hours and 20 minutes of integration time.
Guiding and calibration with Maxim DL.
Stacked with DSS.
Processed with PixInsight: crop, DBE, masked stretch script, histogram stretch to reset black point, masked use of SCNR to control green, MT with a mask for brightest areas, finally unmasked curves to boost contrast a bit.
I had some challenges with flare on this data. Because the bright star Navi (Gamma Cassiopeiae) is near the center of the frame, it blazes at 2.5 magnitude, causing reflections to show up around the scene, specifically near HR266. The limited amount of data I had to use made it difficult to control the flare. Only by stacking with rigorous rejection routines (DSS Kappa Sigma K=1 x 49) was it possible to control the flare. Here are some notes from that effort. blog.migol.com/2013/10/calstar-2013-calibration-and-stack...
I have not taken a similar image recently that features such a bright star. I'm curious what the recent centering and alignment and flocking work I've been doing will change the behavior of the system.
Here's the plate solve from PI:
Image Plate Solver script version 3.4.1
=======================================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+6.55284e-006 -0.000530856 +0.631552
+0.000530703 +6.70795e-006 -0.947467
+0 +0 +1
Projection origin.. [1769.992960 1211.534127]pix -> [RA:+00 56 47.60 Dec:+61 03 08.20]
Resolution ........ 1.911 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... 90.707 deg
Focal ............. 653.03 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.05 um
Field of view ..... 1d 52' 44.8" x 1d 17' 10.2"
Image center ...... RA: 00 56 47.613 Dec: +61 03 08.21
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 01 01 51.623 Dec: +60 05 55.84
top-right ...... RA: 01 02 22.028 Dec: +61 58 35.00
bottom-left .... RA: 00 51 32.283 Dec: +60 06 52.69
bottom-right ... RA: 00 51 24.872 Dec: +61 59 35.24
========================================
The colourful region around yellow Antares (bottom) in Scorpius and blue Rho Ophiuchi (top) in Ophiuchus. The nebulas are largely reflection nebulas, taking on the colour of the stars embedded in the nebulas. However, the field also contains a lot of emission nebulosity, hydrogen gas glowing red and magenta. Plus there are fingers of brown dark dusty nebulosity. It is one of the most colourful regions of the sky.
At right of Antares are two globular clusters, NGC 6144 (small, at 2 o'clock from Antares) and the larger Messier 4 right of Antares.
This is a stack of 5 x 8 minute exposures with the Borg 77mm astrographic apo (330mm focal length) at f/4.3 and the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. I took this March 31/April 1 from Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia.
A beautiful region of Sagittarius, largely overlooked because of it's proximity to the much brighter and spectacular Lagoon and Trifid nebulae .
Exposures: L: 40 + R:20 G:20 B:20 minutes (1.7 hours)
Date: 14th June 2010
Location: Macedon Ranges, Victoria.
Processing:
Sub-Image calibration, colour image sigma rejected addition and RGB image creation with CCDStack.
Background correction using the PixInsight software's Dynamic Background Extraction Tool.
Adobe RGB 1998 colourspace conversion, Mild sharpening, levels and a slight desaturation with Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Image planned, acquired, captured and processed from the Gold Coast, using the remote telescope at Southern Galactic in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria.
Telescope: 16"; f8.4 Richey-Chretien
Focal Length: 3414mm
Camera: Apogee Alta U9000
Pixels: 3056 x 3056 x 12um
Finally got to process this old data from December. There were some weird artifacts on this one, likely from the nearby bright stars just outside the frame. The noise and artifacts wouldn't allow much stretching unfortunately. Combined to LHa-(HaR)GB
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 8-inch RC
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: Orion EON 80mm
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Calibration and processing in PixInsight.
LHa-(HaR)GB
L: 9x3min (2x2)
RGB: 4x3min (3x3) each
Halpha: 6x5min (2x2)
Horsehead and Flame Nebula. Wider field than my earlier attempt. The clouds were invading again, making the bright star Alnitak severely bloated with a halo. This almost completely trashed my luminance frames. No matter, the halpha provided some nice definition in the Horsehead and Flame nebulae, given the conditions.
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 106mm Triplet
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: Orion EON 80mm
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Calibrated in Equinox Image and processed in PixInsight.
Lum: 3x3min (1x1)
R: 6x3min (2x2)
G: 6x3min (2x2)
B: 6x3min (2x2)
Halpha: 6x3min (2x2)
RA: 04h 21m 47.46s, Dec: +19°30′28.3"
www.astrobin.com/qwf2le/B/?nc=user#sky-plot
Hind’s Variable Nebula is a variable nebula located 400 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. The nebula is about 4 light-years across. It is illuminated by the young pre-main sequence star T Tauri. Hind’s Nebula is a Herbig-Haro object, a bright patch of nebulosity in which new stars are forming. Visually, it changes in apparent size and magnitude over weeks and months. It varies in brightness because of material that occasionally comes between it and the variable star T Tauri.
Source: www.constellation-guide.com/hinds-variable-nebula-ngc-1555/
OTA: Dreamscope 16" f/3.7 astrograph (SkyPi, Pie Town, NM, US)
Camera: ZWO ASI 6200MM Pro
Pixel Size: 3.76 x 3.76 micron
Image Scale (1x1): x arcsec/pixel
FOV: 1.37° x 0.92°
Mount: Paramount ME
Guiding: Unknown
Imaging data: ATEO-1 at SkyPi, Pie Town, NM USA
Available from the Starbase website starbase.insightobservatory.com/inventory
Subs (9/11/21 - 12/11/21):
10 x 300 sec RED (bin x1)
10 x 300 sec GREEN (bin x1)
10 x 300 sec BLUE (bin x1)
10 x 300 sec LUMINANCE (bin x1)
Integration: 3 hrs 20 min
Initial image processing (channel combination, background removal, RC-Astro toolkit, non-linear stretch): PixInsight
Post-processing & finishing: Adobe Photoshop, Corel PSP2019 & Adobe Lightroom
A beautiful region of Sagittarius, largely overlooked because of it's proximity to the much brighter and spectacular Lagoon and Trifid nebulae .
Exposures: L: 40 + R:20 G:20 B:20 minutes (1.7 hours)
Date: 14th June 2010
Location: Macedon Ranges, Victoria.
Processing:
Sub-Image calibration, colour image sigma rejected addition and RGB image creation with CCDStack.
Background correction using the PixInsight software's Dynamic Background Extraction Tool.
Adobe RGB 1998 colourspace conversion, Mild sharpening, levels and a slight desaturation with Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Image planned, acquired, captured and processed from the Gold Coast, using the remote telescope at Southern Galactic in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria.
Telescope: 16"; f8.4 Richey-Chretien
Focal Length: 3414mm
Camera: Apogee Alta U9000
Pixels: 3056 x 3056 x 12um
Messier 45 the Pleiades Cluster.
Combined data from Kelling Heath Star Party data 2009/2010 and from Gloucestershire
Exposure as follows
21 x 7mins
4 x 10 mins
11x 10 mins
The trifid nebula displays three types of nebula - red emission, blue reflection, and dark. The dark nebula in the red region divides it into its namesake three parts (although it looks more like 4 parts to me...the "quadrid nebula" maybe)?
This is one hour total exposure time. The transparancy was a little hit or miss, as some high level clouds drifted through. Taken at 12,000 feet atop Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.
Corona Australis Nebula
Corona Australis Nebula is a bright reflection nebula, about 420 light years distant, formed by several bright stars which produce a characteristic color as blue light reflected by the cosmic dark cloud of dust. The cloud is a star-forming region with clusters of young stars embedded within it.
The nebula consists of several nebulous regions, NGC 6726/NGC 6727, and NGC 6729.
NGC 6723 is a globular star cluster located some 29,000 light-years away from Earth, and spans about 65 light-years in size.
Hubble's Variable Nebula 0n 10-26-2014.Although it may look like one, NGC-2261 is NOT a comet!!!!…. it is a very interesting and quite a different object! Here is my close-up photo of this cool object!
NGC 2261 (also known as Hubble's Variable Nebula or Caldwell 46) is a variable nebula located in the constellation Monoceros. It is illuminated by the star R Monocerotis (R Mon), which is not directly visible itself.
NGC 2261 was originally imaged as Palomar Observatory's Hale Telescope's first light by Edwin Hubble on January 26, 1949. Edwin Hubble studied this nebula at several other Observatories(Yerkes & Mount Wilson) as well….it is variable, changing in brightness and the dust clouds are occasionally blocking the light from R Monocerotis changing the appearance of the triangular shaped light you see in as little time as hours to as much as several weeks or even months.
It shines at about 9th magnitude in the constellation of Monoceros (The Unicorn) just East of Orion. NGC2261 Hubble’s Variable Nebula is about 2,500 Light Years Away. You can just make out some the Variable dust clouds in this image.
This is a single 5 minute exposure at ISO 3200 with my Canon 6D DSLR, and my Home-built 16” diameter telescope from my observatories at JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
Canon 60D unmodded
Canon 400mm f5.6L
Astrotrac
ISO 3200
23 exposures @ f 5.6 100-167 seconds
+ 37 exposures at 120 seconds
11/17/2012
Added 37 more exposures to last month's attempt.
This area is a complex of dust near the bright star Navi in Cassiopeia. The nebula glows with a combination of emission and reflection, giving a reddish and blueish white color. The whole complex of IC 59 and IC 63 also are in the Sharpless Catalog as Sh2-185.
Taken over two days while at Calstar 2013 in October. Most data was collected on the first night after I'd done polar alignment and while I was struggling with polar alignment and guiding of the GM8 for film work. The rest of the data was gathered piece-meal as I had shut down the GM8 and went piggyback for the film camera.
Standard setup for my digital work:
Stellarvue SV4 telescope using SSF6 flattener
Modified and Cooled Pentax K10D camera
No light pollution filter, just used the B+W 486 UV/IR filter. For a time I was using this filter to control NIR and UV on the full spectrum camera to control what I thought was out of focus light causing problems.
10 subexposures at 1200 seconds each giving 3 hours and 20 minutes of integration time.
Guiding and calibration with Maxim DL.
Stacked with DSS.
Processed with PixInsight: crop, DBE, masked stretch script, histogram stretch to reset black point, masked use of SCNR to control green, MT with a mask for brightest areas, finally unmasked curves to boost contrast a bit.
I had some challenges with flare on this data. Because the bright star Navi (Gamma Cassiopeiae) is near the center of the frame, it blazes at 2.5 magnitude, causing reflections to show up around the scene, specifically near HR266. The limited amount of data I had to use made it difficult to control the flare. Only by stacking with rigorous rejection routines (DSS Kappa Sigma K=1 x 49) was it possible to control the flare. Here are some notes from that effort. blog.migol.com/2013/10/calstar-2013-calibration-and-stack...
I have not taken a similar image recently that features such a bright star. I'm curious what the recent centering and alignment and flocking work I've been doing will change the behavior of the system.
Here's the plate solve from PI:
Image Plate Solver script version 3.4.1
=======================================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+6.55284e-006 -0.000530856 +0.631552
+0.000530703 +6.70795e-006 -0.947467
+0 +0 +1
Projection origin.. [1769.992960 1211.534127]pix -> [RA:+00 56 47.60 Dec:+61 03 08.20]
Resolution ........ 1.911 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... 90.707 deg
Focal ............. 653.03 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.05 um
Field of view ..... 1d 52' 44.8" x 1d 17' 10.2"
Image center ...... RA: 00 56 47.613 Dec: +61 03 08.21
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 01 01 51.623 Dec: +60 05 55.84
top-right ...... RA: 01 02 22.028 Dec: +61 58 35.00
bottom-left .... RA: 00 51 32.283 Dec: +60 06 52.69
bottom-right ... RA: 00 51 24.872 Dec: +61 59 35.24
========================================
Valdin, Galicia, TS ToupTek 2600MP mono CMOS with RGB filters, TS Optics ONTC coma-corrected Newtonian, D = 300 mm f/4.55, (8,7,7) exposures of 5 min each at gain 100. Photometric colour calibration in Siril. Repeated, simple curve stretch in Gimp. Named Trifid nebula.
The Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146, a bright red emission and blue reflection nebula 4000 light years away in Cygnus, located at the end of a long dark nebula B168. This is a Mean combine stack of 5 x 12 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor with Borg 0.85x flattener/reducer for f/4.8, and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 800. Taken from home October 5, 2013.
8.5 hours of exposure time and processed in PixInsight with a number of processes. I first saw this target a couple of years ago in an EAA device. So nice to start seeing how it looks with more exposure.
USA
L-Ultimate dual band filter
ASI 2600mc pro camera
ASI 290mm guide
ZWO AM5 mount
SV 90mm triplet
Askar FMA180Pro guider
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula, in Cepheus with associated dark nebulosity. This is a stack of 5 x 12 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor and Borg 0.85x flattener/reducer for f/4.8 and filter modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800.
Trifid Nebula from Montebello OSP at the end of July.
This is a selection from a larger image which includes M8 as well. Wanted to feature this picture as a contribution to the Cloudy Nights DSLR astrophoto forum competition for July 2014 for the M20 subject.
Taken with the Pentax K10D (modified and cooled) DSLR on the Stellarvue SV4 telescope. Guided with Orion SSAG on the Stellarvue SV70ED. IDAS HEUIB II filter was used along with the SSF6 flattener.
Stack of 19 subexposures of 1200 seconds each for a total of 6 hours and 20 minutes of integration over 3 nights (July 23, 29, 30). Calibrated with Maxim 5.25 with 64 bias, 9-18 darks (depending on temperature), and 24-64 flats (depending on date). Stacked in DSS with custom rectangle and 2x drizzle stacked. Processed in PixInsight.
Steps in PI were:
Crop to remove ragged edge, Masked stretch script, Histogram stretch to reset black point, Luminance masked noise reduction with the Denoise tool, Masked curves to darken and desaturate the background, and Unsharp mask on the brightest parts.
Exported to Lightroom for final touch (desaturate blue and red a little) and upload.
Note the rings around the brighter stars. The offset rings are from reflections inside the coverglass on the CCD. Because the larger image was framed to balance M8 and M20, the crop is not centered. Thus, the reflections are not centered.
I'm happy enough with this image, I'll revisit it with the whole frame and possibly tone down the blues a bit.
Here's the plate solve from PI:
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+2.63494e-006 -0.000265052 +0.340236
+0.000265051 +2.03983e-006 -0.394048
+0 +0 +1
Projection origin.. [1476.697373 1298.340413]pix -> [RA:+18 02 33.19 Dec:-23 00 10.71]
Resolution ........ 0.954 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... 90.506 deg
Focal ............. 1307.78 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.05 um
Field of view ..... 46' 56.8" x 41' 17.1"
Image center ...... RA: 18 02 33.209 Dec: -23 00 11.38
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 18 04 02.155 Dec: -23 23 47.69
top-right ...... RA: 18 04 03.663 Dec: -22 36 50.97
bottom-left .... RA: 18 01 02.233 Dec: -23 23 28.55
bottom-right ... RA: 18 01 04.780 Dec: -22 36 31.98
Rho Ophiuchus region containing IC 4605, IC 4604, IC 4603, Antares, NGC 6144, M4 Globular Star Cluster, SH2-9, NGC 6121, and emission and reflection nebula structure
Pleiades (M45). Images taken in summer of 2015. Image taken with a Canon 6D through a 10" reflecting telescope. Stack of images totaling about an hour exposure. Processed with Nebulosity and Lightroom.
The Pleiades (M45) and its associated faint reflection nebulosity - as imaged tonite! I'm really pleased with this one. I've finally got the hang of my Smartguider 2. The seeing conditions were very poor and also the transparency, not to mention that M45 was also at a low altitude.
This image comprises of only 2 x 10 minute exposures @ ISO 800 with an astro-modded Canon 600D. Telescope: William Optics Megrez 90mm. Astronomik's CCD CLS Clip Filter.
The fog ruined the rest of the light frames, I intended to stack a total of 10. I shall revisit this 'little gem' and record more of its nebulosity...
Info about the Pleiades: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades
The Belt of Orion with the Horsehead Nebula at botton, the dark nebula set in the bright emission nebula IC 434. The nebula at left of the Zeta Orionis (aka Alnitak) is the Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. The reflection nebula at upper left is the M78 complex with NGC 2071. The other Belt stars are Alnilan (centre) and Mintaka (upper right). The field contains a wealth of other blue reflection and red emission nebulas.
Taken from Australia, March 2014 with the Borg 77mm astrographic apo refractor (330mm focal length) at f/4.3 for a stack of 5 x 10 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800.
The small reflection nebula, NGC 1999, surrounds the 10.4 magnitude star, V380 Orionis, located a couple of degrees south of the Sword-of-Orion. V380 Orionis is a young, hot star with 3.5 solar masses. Its light is reflecting off the gas and dust left over from its own creation to create the nebula NGC 1999. I read about NGC 1999 in Stephan O’Meara’s book Hidden Treasures where he lists this small reflection nebula as his 33rd object of interest (HT33). What intrigued me was that there was a dark cloud named Paramian-34 centered 15 arcseconds from V380 Orionis, well within the boundaries of the reflection nebula. O’Meara thought that he might be picking up the tiny dark cloud (Paramian-34) since the star appeared in his 4” refractor, at high magnification, as surrounded by a thin dark-circle. Now that I had a new target on my observational list, all I needed was a clear night. On February 8th, I star hopped from Orion’s lower sword star to V380 Orionis with little difficulty. I had to increase the magnification a bit to see the 2 arcminute Reflection Nebula and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to see -- even from my suburban location. Increasing the magnification even further, I too saw what appeared to be a thin dark ring around the star embedded in the nebula. It was a good night to be out under the stars.
Additional astronomical drawings can be seen at www.orrastrodrawing.com
This is a very cropped version from the original image shot with a 50mm lens. A IDAS LPS-P2 light pollution filter was added to the lens. Digital Development Processing in AIP4W was used to pull the blue reflection nebula out of the background. A number of curve and level adjustments were made in Photoshop CS2 to enhance the blue.
Not the best in terms of star shape but the goal here was to see how much of the Merope Nebula I could coax from the sky fog and light polluted background. Obviously quite a bit when you filter out the street lamps. :O
just 25 minutes of data here (5 x5 mins). I took some shorter exposures but they were quite noisy. Ive concentrated on the wispy reflection nebulae so the red stars are a bit colourless.
The diffraction spikes were due to a bristle from a blower brush getting stuck on the flattener! Ive just left them in!
480/80mm refractor with 1.0 x field flattener. Canon 60Da with Hutech LPA filter.
Camera controlled with backyard EOS.
Ioptron ZEQ25GT mount with SSAG/PHD autoguider.
Images processed in PixInsight and Photoshop
M45 – The Pleiades. 65×120 sec @ ISO 3200, TV-85 at F/5.6, IDAS-LPS, modified Canon T3.
Here’s the obligatory M45 image for the month of October, 2013. I shot this while waiting for other objects to get into position.
📍 Location: Shima City, Mie Prefecture, Japan
📅 Date: December 4, 2024
🕒 Total Exposure Time: 234 minutes
🔭 Equipment:
- Telescope: Takahashi FS-60CB with Multi Flattener 1.04x
- Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X8i (Rebel T6i)
- ISO1600, 6 minutes × 39 frames (total 234 minutes)
- Mount: Vixen GPD
- Guiding: SS-One AutoGuider Pro (autoguided)
Image Processing:
- Calibrated and stacked in PixInsight
- Final processing in Adobe Photoshop
Cave Nebula (Caldwell 9; Sh2-155)
Date: 09-27-2014
Telescope (Lens): Orion 8in f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph
Addition Optics: Baader Planetarium RCC1 Coma Corrector
Camera: Canon XSi
Exposures: 24 x 300 sec (ISO 800) + 26 x 480 sec (ISO 800)+ Flats x10, Dark Flats x10, Bias x10
Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Tracking: EQMOD / Stellarium / PHD Guiding
Guidance Camera: Logitech 3000 Pro
Guidance Scope: Celestron 9x50 Finder
Astromomy weather forcasted by Canadian Meteorological Center:
Transparancy: Average
Seeing Category: III (Average)
Observed Weather:
Cloud Cover: Few Clouds
Temp: 63°F
Humidity: 78°
Light Pollution: "Yellow" - Based on Light Pollution Map
Season 2015-2016 start with a whopping 51 minutes of astronomical darkness.
NGC 7023 (Iris nebula) reflects the blue light of the stars within.
LRGB, 5x10min exposures on twilight skies with C8+reducer, BaaderLRGB filters and SXVR-H18.
Dark and bias frames need a do-over based on the hot pixels left in the image.
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the reflection nebula IC 2631, glowing from light from the star HD 97300.
Original caption: A newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds in this image from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Dust particles in the vast clouds that surround the star HD 97300 diffuse its light, like a car headlight in enveloping fog, and create the reflection nebula IC 2631. Although HD 97300 is in the spotlight for now, the very dust that makes it so hard to miss heralds the birth of additional, potentially scene-stealing, future stars.
Trifid Nebula from Montebello OSP at the end of July.
This is a selection from a larger image which includes M8 as well. Wanted to feature this picture as a contribution to the Cloudy Nights DSLR astrophoto forum competition for July 2014 for the M20 subject.
Taken with the Pentax K10D (modified and cooled) DSLR on the Stellarvue SV4 telescope. Guided with Orion SSAG on the Stellarvue SV70ED. IDAS HEUIB II filter was used along with the SSF6 flattener.
Stack of 6 subexposures of 1200 seconds each for a total of 6 hours and 20 minutes of integration over 3 nights (July 23, 29, 30). Calibrated with Maxim 5.25 with 64 bias, 9-18 darks (depending on temperature), and 24-64 flats (depending on date). Stacked in DSS with custom rectangle and 2x drizzle stacked. Processed in PixInsight.
Steps in PI were:
Crop to remove ragged edge, Masked stretch script, Histogram stretch to reset black point, Luminance masked noise reduction with the Denoise tool, Masked curves to darken and desaturate the background, and Unsharp mask on the brightest parts.
Exported to Lightroom for final touch (desaturate blue and red a little) and upload.
Note the rings around the brighter stars. The offset rings are from reflections inside the coverglass on the CCD. Because the larger image was framed to balance M8 and M20, the crop is not centered. Thus, the reflections are not centered.
I'm happy enough with this image, I'll revisit it with the whole frame and possibly tone down the blues a bit.
Here's the plate solve from PI:
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+2.63494e-006 -0.000265052 +0.340236
+0.000265051 +2.03983e-006 -0.394048
+0 +0 +1
Projection origin.. [1476.697373 1298.340413]pix -> [RA:+18 02 33.19 Dec:-23 00 10.71]
Resolution ........ 0.954 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... 90.506 deg
Focal ............. 1307.78 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.05 um
Field of view ..... 46' 56.8" x 41' 17.1"
Image center ...... RA: 18 02 33.209 Dec: -23 00 11.38
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 18 04 02.155 Dec: -23 23 47.69
top-right ...... RA: 18 04 03.663 Dec: -22 36 50.97
bottom-left .... RA: 18 01 02.233 Dec: -23 23 28.55
bottom-right ... RA: 18 01 04.780 Dec: -22 36 31.98